Almost everyone has experienced the frustration of bananas that have gone from perfect to mush, seemingly overnight. Summer is especially cruel to the sweet and perishable fruit. The Queen's right-hand woman, Gina, a.k.a. the Contessa, has thoughtfully shared with us a great recipe for utilizing those overripe bananas. You will undoubtedly want to use this recipe often, as it's quite good.

Ingredients
1-1/2 cups sugar
1 cup (1/2 pound) softened unsalted butter
2 eggs
2 bananas, mashed
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract (preferably Tahitian)
3-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt (don't use if using salted butter)
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 cup chopped macadamia nuts
3/4 cup vanilla sugar mixed with 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

Instructions
Cream together sugar and butter. Add eggs and mix well. Stir in bananas. Add pure vanilla extract.

Combine flour, soda, salt and cream of tartar; stir to blend. Add to creamed mixture, stirring until dry ingredients are moistened. Mix in nuts. Refrigerate until chilled.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a cookie sheet with bakers' parchment.

To keep dough chilled and more manageable to work with, sit the bowl of dough in a larger bowl of ice water. Form dough into tablespoon-size balls and drop into the vanilla sugar/nutmeg mixture, turning carefully to coat evenly. Place dough-balls about 3 inches apart on cookie sheets and flatten slightly with the bottom of a glass that has been dipped in the vanilla sugar mixture. Bake about 8 minutes, or until edges start to brown. Cool on baking sheet before removing to a rack.

Yields about 3-1/2 dozen cookies.

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